Portfolio: Endo says sales down in third quarter

Endo Health Solutions Inc. of Chadds Ford cut its full-year earnings and revenue outlook Monday as it reported disappointing pharmaceutical sales in the third quarter.

Over the last few years Endo has expanded from a drug company into a larger conglomerate that sells both branded and generic drugs, develops medical devices, and makes urology products and software used in managing medical practices.

The company reported a 1 percent decline in total revenue for the third quarter to $750.5 million in the period ended Sept. 30. That was significantly below the $789.4 million predicted by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet. Endo reported a 2 percent decrease in branded pharmaceutical sales to $417 million, in part due to supply disruption of the company’s painkiller Opana ER.

The company’s net income rose 32 percent to $53.8 million, or 45 cents per share, for the quarter. Those results included a charge of $83 million from the settlement of a lawsuit with Watson Pharmaceuticals related to its biggest-selling drug, the Lidoderm pain patch, partially offset by a benefit of $46 million.

Advertisement

Excluding that and other one-time events, the company would have earned $1.28 per share. That was slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations calling for earnings of $1.26 per share.

The company cut its full-year earnings per share guidance to $5 to $5.10 per share, down from $5 to $5.20, excluding a series of one-time costs like amortization, acquisition costs, payments to the company’s partners, and impairment charges. The company expects revenue of about $3.05 billion, down from previous estimates between $3.05 billion and $3.18 billion.

Analysts expect earnings per share of $5.03 and revenue of $3.1 billion, on average.

GAS PRICES: Gas prices continued their downward trend for the third consecutive week, following Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the northeastern U.S. The national average price for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline dropped 8 cents in the past week to $3.50 Friday.

The Philadelphia five-county area gas average was $3.70 Monday, unchanged over the weekend and down 2 cents in the last week. Diesel was $4.20 Monday, unchanged over the weekend.

MILESTONE: USA Technologies Inc., an East Whiteland provider of wireless, cashless payment and M2M telemetry solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries, said Monday it achieved a milestone of 11,000 customer locations using USAT’s Two-Tier Pricing Program, nine months after launching the program in January.

USAT’s Two-Tier Pricing Program provides operators of small-ticket, unattended terminals such as vending machines, the ability to charge two different prices – a standard retail price for credit/debit card transactions, and a discounted price for cash purchases.

Jim Turner, vice president of deployment services for USA Technologies, commented: “Our Two-Tier Pricing Program has been gaining strong traction with operators of our unattended retail locations as they recognize the benefits of cashless adoption and the valuable role two-tier pricing can play in their purchasing decision.”

SANDY HELP: Wegmans Food Markets Inc. has worked closely with the Monmouth County Food Bank and the American Red Cross in New Jersey since Hurricane Sandy hit to donate emergency food and ice. Wegmans operates seven stores in New Jersey, two of which are in Monmouth County, an area severely impacted by the hurricane. Not only were Wegmans’ customers impacted by the storm, but employees were, too.

To date, Wegmans delivered three truckloads of food to food bank, with an additional truckload of paper and personal care products to be delivered on Tuesday, and three truckloads of food and ice to the American Red Cross central distribution facility in New Jersey. The combined value of the donation is approximately $200,000.